Remote control touch icons and selectors are known, such as touch selectors in elevators for selecting the destination floor. Other known touch icons for operating appliances in homes, office or other building structures, such as schools, businesses, hospitals and factories use displayed icons of black/white or color LCD displays.
Yet another known touch icons are capacitive touch icons enabling to touch a predetermined area, or surface or a specific point of a glass or plastic cover of a touch pad, normally associated with the appliance itself, for example a video interphone monitor that provides touch points onto its cover to switch on the monitor or open the entrance door to a visitor.
The known touch pads for operating and controlling different appliances in homes, offices, businesses or in any other buildings or facilities commonly use icons of LCD display. The problems such displays present are that the icons must be set to operate a given function of a given appliance, and to pre-program specific icons is very large undertaking. For example when 9 or 12 only icons need to provide for any given function of any given appliance, such task is very complex.
There is very little in common between washing machine and iPod player or between a television set and a dimmer of a light bulb. All attempts to create a cover all touch pads in the past have failed, proving time and again that a custom programmed touch pad or keypad are needed. Such custom program is also not simple, because installers of the home automation do not have the skill to handle the pads in the field, and most ending up with difficulties and the eventual reliance on special knowledgeable high level installers. This results in very high costs for both the pads themselves and the installation.
Moreover, custom programmed keypads or touch pads must be provided with descriptions termed hereafter also as icons for identifying the function of the touch point or the touch area, custom descriptions require expensive custom handling. This too complicates the introduction of cover all pads and their costs.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,639,907, 7,649,727, 7,864,500, 8,148,921, 8,170,722, 8,175,463, 8,331,794, 8,331,795 and 8,344,668 disclose another type of keypads, touch screen monitors, appliances and AC devices including switches and AC outlets that can be set via setting switches and/or loading addresses and data pertaining the appliance and its function by learning the appliance remote control signals from the appliance's original remote control units, in a simple process. Enabling the users themselves to decide, and set the keypads or touch pads to their preference.
The one remaining item for such pads is the need to imprint and/or otherwise describe the operating function of the designated keys, icons or the touch spot or area for identifying the nature of the key, the touch area or the icon including the appliance identification or other particulars the “touch” represents.
US patents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,148,921 and 8,170,722 show windows for introducing such printed labels for each key, for self-printing/cutting by the user of his selection and preference. For example, instead of printing bed-room 2, the user can print “Joanne” or the name of the child occupying bed-room 2.
The last is the touch pad design and cost. Architects are demanding attractive designs for touch pads, little windows or cutouts for labels will be accepted for business premises and offices, but not for a living room of a residence. The demand is for clean, white and/or decorated pads that do not look too industrial in nature. LCD touch screen will do, but they are costly and require expertise to program and set. Low cost, plain clean white or decorated pads that are simple to set and imprint are needed to solve the other persisting difficult item of the present day home automation system.